Fishing Boat Design Peculiarities

It will be noted that the length of the design given in the table is 80ft. 4in.; the odd inches would disqualify the boat for the 30ft. class, and in building it would be necessary to bring the sternpost upright from the keel, so that the length on the deck line did not exceed the 30ft. limit.

The 30ft. design and the 27ft. design being identical, we need make no remark about it, further than say that Mr. Shergold in making it was fully impressed with the desire that she was to beat the whole 27ft. class.

The 25ft. (Plate XX.) boat was designed by Mr. Shergold for Mr. Fay, who successfully raced her under the name of Salus; she was bought in 1871 by Mr. Beavor Webb, who re-named her Israfel. She won ten prizes out of twelve starts whilst in Mr. Webb's hands, and he sold her to Mr. H. Little, who has raced her with varied success, under the name of Wild Rose, in the 25ft. class.*

The 21ft. (Plate XXI.) design represents that of the Centipede, the most successful fishing boat ever turned out by Mr. D. Hatcher. In the drawing, the design is represented as for a boat of 22ft. 8in. length, but all the sections are exactly as they were in the 21ft. boat, the spacing between the sections only having been increased, so as to bring the length up to that necessary to make 5 tons with the same 8ft. beam. The water-lines, with the extra spacing as shown, certainly look very much better, even than they did in the 21ft. design, and no doubt a boat of the extra length would be a very fast and capable craft; and, moreover, would be eligible for the 23ft. class. The Centipede, we might say, had very much less weight in her iron keel than given in the table, and the siding of her wood keel was less: the siding of the keel has been increased solely with the object of getting more lead underneath it.

The Itchen boats are always carvel built, and are usually decked forward, with a stern sheet aft, and are open amidships with a water way and coaming round. The floor construction is variously contrived, but the most approved plans are those shown in the designs for the 30ft. and 23ft. boat respectively (Plates XIX. and XXI.) In the 30ft. design, a hogging piece, or keelson, of wood, iron, or lead, is worked upon top, the main keel of about half the siding of the latter. A sectional view of this construction is shown at midship section. It will be seen that the heels of the timbers rest on the top of the main keel, and are spiked to the keelson. The whole is secured by iron floor knees, bolted as through frame and plank. Aft a stepping line to take the heels of the timbers has to be cut in the dead wood; in the middle length, the top of the main keel as shown, forms the stepping line. The spaces between the plank floor and keelson are

• Am reoently as September, 1879, she competed suooesafully on Southampton Water against aU the oraok lichen boats.

'filled with concrete made with cement and boiler punchings, or cement and lead shot. This is smoothed off level with the top of keelson.

In the 21ft. design (Plate XXI.), no keelson is worked. A stepping line is set off on the keel and dead woods, as shown by 8. At each station for a frame, a joggle is cut in the keel and dead wood, b b, for the heel of the frame to be step-butted in, as at a, a, a. A sectional view of this fitting is shown by A. The heels of the frames are bolted through the keel, and the whole is secured by iron floor knees (see Pig. 21, page 101.) This plan is to be preferred, unless the keelson is of metal, on account of it having an advantage for ballasting. Any spaces left between the sides of the keel and the plank should be filled with concrete, made as before described. The rabbet (r) will be cut as shown, and the garboard strake should be fastened with as long spikes as practicable.

All the Itchen boats have, we believe, what are known as " raking midship sections;" that is, the broadest width of each succeeding water-line is progressively farther forward, from the load water-line downwards. This peculiarity is most apparent in the Centipede. It will be seen that her greatest beam on the L.W.L. is very far aft of the greatest breadth of the lower water-line. The introduction of lead keels and the reduction in the proportion of beam to length, will perhaps cause the rake given to the midship section to be somewhat modified in future, and its advantage under any conditions is at least a debateable point.

With regard to the proportion of beam to length there is evidence that the proportion is gradually getting less; there is no doubt that the' lead keels and lead ballast are the cause of this, perhaps assisted by an apprehension that at some time or the other the boats will have to compete under the " tonnage" rule. However, the fishermen still patronise beam, without any such apprehensions, and one of the most successful boats in their class has 9ft. breadth to 21ft. length.*

Until the last four or five years an Itchen boat was never seen with a counter; now counters are becoming common, but, as the regular Itchen boats are square sterned, we have so represented them in the designs.

* There is not mnoh donbt that a heavy lead keel (and a little leas beam if thought desirable) is safer than so very much beam and very little outside weight. The fishing boats, as a rule, have very little siding to their keels, and the weight of iron that can be got underneath is consequently very small. It is generally thought, however, among the fishermen, that a foot or so extra beam will more than compensate for the absence of a ton or so weight on the keel. There is a very great mistake about this, and the beamiest of the Itohen boats, as they are necessarily the shallowest, and have, moreover, little or no weight outside and loose ballast inside, are by far the most unsafe, as, although very stiff at first, they lose their righting power as they get near their beam ends (see the chapter on " Stability.") Only recently one of the beamiest of the Itohen boats (19ft. by 9ft.) was capsized in a squall through the loose ballast shifting, and a beamy Itohen boat with no great weight on her keel requires as much looking after in a squall as a Una.

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